A Tradition of Innovation: Celebrating FRESHFARM at 25 Years

By Hugo Mogollon, Executive Director

The beginning of 2022 marks my second anniversary managing FRESHFARM. Yes, both years have been complicated but also unbelievably fulfilling. As we enter this year, we also celebrate an incredible milestone for FRESHFARM. We are celebrating our 25th anniversary!

This year, we celebrate the achievements of hundreds of people who built FRESHFARM’s legacy, people who believed in our mission of building a better local food system. Starting with our co-founders, and including our board members, staff, volunteers, farmers and producers, funders and patrons, and community members, this army of dreamers has brought beautiful local food to our tables, strengthened our foodshed, and meaningfully changed how we relate to local food in the region.

In 1997, Ann Harvey Yonkers and Bernadine Prince courageously pursued their goal of connecting farmers in the Chesapeake Bay with a community looking for food that comes directly from people growing and making it. They started the Dupont Circle Farmers Market and along with it, they founded FRESHFARM. They aimed big and began a legacy of innovative ideas that has grown beyond their wildest dreams. This year, our farmers markets generated more than $20 million in revenue to our farmers and producers and distributed more than $1.2 million of local, high-quality food to vulnerable families and community institutions. We also offered meaningful hands-on experiences for more than 7,000 children in 19 Washington, DC Public Schools, shaping how they relate to nutritious fresh food for the rest of their lives.

In the next 12 months, we will share stories of the people behind FRESHFARM and how our programs have changed how we think about nutrition education, food access, food distribution, and the regional food system. We will tell you about our efforts to adapt to an ever-changing landscape, the challenges that we want to tackle, and how FRESHFARM will continue to nourish our food future.

I am fortunate to be leading this organization at this particular time, and I invite you to celebrate, reminisce, and dream with us about the next 25 years. We hope you keep walking with us along this path.